Weight in the 20’s

I have spent the last ten years of my life casually taking notice of my own slowing metabolism. I’ve dealt with typical “weighty” issues – the freshman 15, the extra 25 pounds piled on by marriage and a desk job in my early 20’s, succumbing to the Weightwatcher point system to shed a few only to gain it all back when I was tired of counting numbers, an honest and successful effort to clean up my diet, lower my cholesterol and get into the best shape of my life in my mid-twenties, and most recently, pregnancy weight gain (and loss) as I near the age of 30. I truly pay no mind to others’ body size or shape, but hearing or reading criticism of one’s weight – whether the target is an overweight friend or an extremely thin celebrity – exhausts me. In recent months, criticism of pregnant and/or post-partum womens’ bodies has especially annoyed me to no end. Isn’t it hard enough to worry about and take care of our own bodies, without making others’ our business, too?

When the adventure to get pregnant began, I wasn’t in the best shape. I exercised regularly, but my diet was horrible. I added on 5 pounds over the course of the fall (I blame baking apple pies) and the holiday season. By the time I got pregnant in January, I had made a vow to take better care of my body diet-wise but quickly learned that you eat what you feel like eating. For me, that was fried fish and chicken. I chose not to deny myself any foods that I craved, and focus on moderation. My diet eventually returned to pre-pregnancy normal.

I barely gained any additional weight during the first trimester, but during the second, piled on anywhere from one to 3 or 4 pounds per week. At the beginning of the third trimester, I had already gained 30 pounds and knew that, with over 10 weeks left to go, I was going to have to stay calm, take care of my body, and just deal with the end result after the baby was born (even if it was 40-50+ lbs.) At 7 months, the stretch marks came and at 9 months, I hit the 40+ pound mark. I continued to feel reasonably good, tried like Hell to maintain a positive attitude, and started making post-birth diet and exercise plans for the fall which made me a little nervous.

And then, bam – the unexpected. Giving birth at 37 weeks via c-section, which has kept me from that serious exercise plan I had so planned soon after baby (it’s been pushed up a month or two.) My body has almost shrunk back to normal, and I can now see new problem areas – in addition to stretch marks that weren’t in plain sight when I had a huge bump – that will need some TLC.

Maybe it’s a 30-year old thing, or maybe I’m just being realistic, but that almost panicky urge to “get back to normal” as quickly as possible has been tossed out the window. I’m going to go by that advice I’ve both heard and read throughout my pregnancy, words of wisdom that I had previously rolled my eyes at:
“it took nine months to get to this point, it’s going to take nine months to get back to normal.”

Of course, I’m accepting the fact that there may very well be a new kind of normal when it comes to my body size and shape – and I’m perfectly A-o.k. with that.

12 Responses

I had to accept after having kids that my body will never be the same – especially the stretch marks. My body was just a different shape, and I was smaller post-baby in some places, bigger in others.

The stretch marks were/are the hardest, though. I did everything I could to prevent them from coming, but being nearly-fluorescently-complected made it impossible to avoid. But instead of feeling ashamed of them, whenever I look at them, I just try to remind myself that my belly was a sanctuary for nine months for each of my children!

You’ve always only looked great when I’ve seen you, and I’m sure the glow of motherhood beats out any body changes you might notice. You are beautiful in all ways, Steph!

if your breastfeeding, eathing healthy and exercising at least 30 min a day give or take, the weight will shed right off you! Took me 6 months to get back to normal & I’m below my pre-pregnancy weight!

Hi Steph! I’m a new reader to you 🙂 I’m a late 20’s, going to be married in a year reader! Though I obviously can’t relate to the affects pregnancy has on the body (yet!), I can surely agree with you when you talked early in your post about noticing your metabolism slow! I’ve lost nearly 100 lbs since I graduated High School, and though I worked extremely hard in the beginning to keep it off, I was always able to maintain it without “much” effort once I got down to a healthy weight. I find this is no longer the case! I think your positivity is what will get you back to where you want to be. Reading a bit of your blogs, you seem like you surround yourself with positive, supportive people. You’ll have “down days” (all women do) when you don’t like your body, but keep at it. Anytime you feel any negative thoughts just look at your BEAUTIFUL baby and think of the wonderful outcome. 🙂

Like #5 said, if you breastfeed it’ll fall off of you quicker than anything. Especially if you keep it up after 3-6 months. That’s what’s happened to me and it’s great! Plus, you know, eating healthy always helps 🙂

Due to some issues in my pregnancy, I gained 60lbs, come to find out it was all water weight because it took me 4 weeks to lose it (no working out either.) and I ended up weight a lot less than before I got pregnant. Now, while that sounds like a dream, my stomach is still the same size, a TINY bit smaller, but not by much.
My point is that our bodies change with pregnancy. Its ok! You got a beautiful baby from it, and he is worth it. Not only that, but I always tell people to count their blessings they had a healthy pregnancy and weight is only a secondary worry. I could barely eat during my pregnancy and believe me, i would take weight gain over a rough one any day!
Hang in there girl! And what a great post!

If you sit at a desk all day, you should not be eating junk. Have a muffin or yogurt for breakfast, have a salad for lunch. Later on (when you go home), move around and have a small meal. I believe women are supposed to get by on 1,200-1,500 calories, but this info is all over Google.

We have to move…no way around it. Go for walks, use a treadmill, jump around (aerobics) in your living room. Absolutely NO way around it.

C-section belly – don’t know if it goes back into place, but a bit of belly isn’t bad.

If you need to binge, use common sense.

Be realistic and kind to yourself, but don’t be lazy and indifferent.

If you’re not sure what to eat, have a look at Woman’s World Mag…new diet every week.

Breastfeeding = best diet ever! You get to eat pretty much what you want, within reason of course, and the weight still comes off! Still, even with the weight loss, as others have mentioned, pregnancy wrecks the body. Baby #2 shredded the few stomach muscles baby #1 didn’t destroy. In fact, we were waiting to go in for surgery for baby #2 (scheduled c-section, again thanks to baby #1) and my dr. told us I may need surgery down the road to reattach the muscles. I go for walks every day with the baby and that helps.

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